VISAKHAPATNAM: The ambitious project, state-of-the-art convention centre on the Beach Road, taken up by Andhra University may miss its December deadline, by about two to three months.
Work is in the finishing stages, but engineers looking after the project say the critical aspect of installing the fire fighting system, electrical wiring and setting up the air-condition grids, might take another three months.
Initially, it was the funding that delayed the project and now it is the complicated design of electrical wiring, air-condition grids and fire-fighting system, which appears to be the cause for delay.
All the three works have to be integrated before the false ceiling work takes off and it is a complicated design, as all the three teams have to work simultaneously. It is all about synchronising and that is delaying the progress, said an engineer present at the site.
Once completed, the convention centre project that began about fours years ago, will not only be one of the biggest centres in the State but will be a state-of-the-art one, taking its facilities and design into consideration, said Vice-Chancellor G. Nageswara Rao.
Being set-up on an eight-acre piece of land belonging to the university on the picturesque Beach Road, the overall floor space will be over 40,000 sft, excluding the landscaping.
Tortoise shaped
Shaped like a tortoise, if seen through the bird’s eye, the auditorium has five levels of seating arrangements, overlooking a huge dais, which can accommodate over 60 persons at a time.
The overall capacity of the auditorium will be around 2,000 with permanent seating arrangements and there is a separate exhibition space of 1,500 sft. The building is covered with 10-feet -width corridor on all sides, said Civil Engineer of AU Rajasekhar.
Facilities
Each of the five levels has two toilet blocks for both sides and the dais is provided with four green rooms with VVIP and VIP lounges.
The convention centre has been provided with two lifts of 16-capacity each and the air-condition capacity is around 280 tonnes, which will be run by three 100 kv generators.
According to Mr. Rajasekhar, a modern fire-fighting system is being set up with sensors and the entire lighting will be LED-based.
The convention centre is being built at a cost of Rs. 14 crore. While Rs. 6 crore is being borne by AU, the remaining will be shared by the Ministry of HRD and other bodies such as UGC, Prof. Nageswara Rao told The Hindu .
